Biomass derivatives fuel additives

The additional and steadily increasing demand for biofuels could lead to a situation where production of biomass derived fuels finally compete with food production. People who can afford cars can pay more for biomass for fuels than people in non-industrialised countries can pay for food production. Fertile soil in non-industrial countries might then be used for energy crops instead of food. This may eventually lead to a situation where only bad soil is left for food crops and the poor, which in addition would eventually also lead to further deforestation of the World s rainforests. 

The biochemical reaction catalyzed by epoxygenase in plants combines the common oilseed fatty acids, linoleic or linolenic acids, with O2, forming only H2O and epoxy fatty acids as products (CO2 and H2O are utilized to make linoleic or linolenic acids). A considerable market currently exists for epoxy fatty acids, particularly for resins, epoxy coatings, and plasticizers. The U.S. plasticizer market is estimated to be about 2 billion pounds per year (Hammond 1992). Presently, most of this is derived from petroleum. In addition, there is industrial interest in use of epoxy fatty acids in durable paints, resins, adhesives, insecticides and insect repellants, crop oil concentrates, and the formulation of carriers for slow-release pesticides and herbicides (Perdue 1989, Ayorinde et al. 1993). Also, epoxy fatty acids can readily and economically be converted to hydroxy and dihydroxy fatty acids and their derivatives, which are useful starting materials for the production of plastics as well as for detergents, lubricants, and lubricant additives. Such renewable derived lubricant and lubricant additives should facilitate use of plant/biomass-derived fuels. Examples of plastics that can be produced from hydroxy fatty acids are polyurethanes and polyesters (Weber et al. 1994). As commercial oilseeds are developed that accumulate epoxy fatty acids in the seed oil, it is likely that other valuable products would be developed to use this as an industrial chemical feedstock in the future. 

Ohgren et al., 2006). Recent work suggests that L. brevis and L. buchneri simultaneously consume C5 and C6 sugars (Kim et al., 2007 Liu et al., 2008), a factor that facilitates complete consumption of all lignocellulosic-derived sugars without catabolite repression. As a result, these strains are desirable hosts for additional manipulations toward efficient conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals. 

The rehydration product of HMF, levulinic acid, is also regarded as a potential biomass derived organic compound [35, 39,40]. Levulinic acid could be utilized as feedstock for several large volume chemicals (Fig. 7), e.g., methyltetrahydrofuran and levulinate esters (fuel additives), delta-amino-levulinic acid (herbicide), and diphenohc acid (replacer for bisphenol A for polycarbonates). 

The composition of fuels is changing from 100% fossil to those derived from biomass such as ethanol to address energy security and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the impact of new fuels and fuel additives on combustion products and abatement catalysts must be evaluated. 

The use of tire-derived fuel as a cofiring feedstock in power generation has many advantages. Hrst, because of the high calorific value of TDF, particularly the wire-free TDF, the cost of TDF in GJ (ot /10 Btu) is lower than that of any fossil fuel - with the possible exception of Powder River Basin coal delivered locally or to a mine-mouth plant - and is competitive with even the lowest cost biomass fuels. This, combined with the lower ash content of TDF (without steel) makes it a viable blending fuel. In addition, the sulfur content of TDF is less than most eastern bituminous coals and conq>arable to medium-sulfur coals throughout the world. 

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